Discount Broadway tickets. There’s an app for that

It’s a long standing tradition for visitors to New York..join the hundreds on-line at the tkts booth in Times Square to buy discounted tickets for a Broadway play.

Trouble is, you have no way of knowing if tickets for the play you want are actually available..unless you have a smartphone.

The aptly named tkts is an app developed by the Theatre Development Fund, a non profit focused on providing access to live theatre. It will tell you what tickets are available at each of its booths..Times Square, South Street Seaport or Downtown Brooklyn. Amazingly it doesn’t make this information available anywhere else..even on its web site.

At The Booth, an unauthorized app using the same idea lists shows available at the Times Square tkts booth along with an indiction of the size of the line. This app will allow you to buy discounted tickets for some plays from your phone at BroadwaySpace.com a site operated by the app’s developer.

The fund is not impressed, a representative told The New York Times that At The Booth takes much longer to load than the official app (true in my tests) and claimed that the content is not always accurate. Either way, both apps can be helpful if you are trying to score discounted tickets plus, both include information about the productions, reviews and directions to the theatre to pass the time while you are waiting on line.

tkts is free for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7. Download links are here. At The Booth is $0.99 for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Download links are here.

Bob Benedetti

Former RCAF Fighter Pilot Bob worked for CTV Montreal as a Reporter, Producer and Executive producer for 35 years retiring in 2004. Bob started reporting on personal technology in 1995 at CTV and continues today at Home Technology Montreal